In the world of IT support, you develop a keen eye for spotting unusual requests, but every now and then something truly unexpected lands in your queue that makes you do a double take. One such moment happened when a user submitted a ticket that, on the surface, seemed straight out of a school supplies mystery.
The ticket simply read: “My pencil sharpener stopped working. Can IT fix it?”
At first, the support team thought it was a prank or someone was having a laugh. After all, pencil sharpeners are far beyond the scope of keyboard fixes or password resets. Still, curiosity got the better of them, and the assigned technician followed up with a polite reply asking for more details about the issue.
The user responded earnestly, explaining that the pencil sharpener was an electric model plugged into the same power strip as their computer setup. They reported that it suddenly stopped making the usual buzzing noise and wasn’t sharpening pencils anymore. The user wondered if there was a problem with their workstation’s power supply or if IT could provide a software update to help the sharpener run again.
With a chuckle, the technician walked down to the user’s cubicle to investigate the scene firsthand. There, tangled among cables and monitors, was a modest electric pencil sharpener—its little green power light was off. The technician checked the power strip, found the sharpener unplugged, and gently plugged it back in. The sharpener roared to life, its familiar grinding sound filling the room.
The user looked genuinely surprised and grateful. Apparently, they had unplugged it the day before without realizing it and assumed it had “crashed.” The incident became a lighthearted story shared around the IT team for weeks — a rare reminder that sometimes the simplest fix is just plugging a device back in, even if that device happens to be a humble pencil sharpener.
It also sparked a running joke in the office about whether IT could handle repairs of other non-tech office essentials, leaving everyone wondering what bizarre ticket might arrive next.